This is the horoscope of a person who very easily is the most radical, dramatic and contemporarily relevant Indian personality in modern history – in terms of his effect on the spiritual understanding of human beings as a whole. So, even if you don’t already know who Sri Chaitanya is, it will be very interesting for you to hear about him through his astrological horoscope.

The details of his birth are relatively well documented by his biographers and the chief commentators on those biographies. As a result we know he was born in Nadia, West Bengal, India; on February 18th in the C.E. year 1486 – just after the Sun set, which would be right around 18:17. The chart above shows the condition of the main sky for this time and place.

Alignment of a Triple Axis

First of all you see that Ketu and Rahu are in the 1st and 7th house. Thus the strongest “axis” of planets (the northern and southern lunar nodes) has aligned with the strongest “axis” of the sky (the eastern and western horizons). In fact, the Rahu-Ketu axis was at 26º of, which would exactly be the position of the eastern and western horizon at sunset! So the conjunction of the two axis is exact and could not be stronger.

On top of this Mahaprabhu (an affectionate name for Sri Caitanya) was born on a full Moon. In fact, his birthday was celebrated by those who still follow his example around the world just yesterday/today. If you are born on a Full Moon, and born when the Sun sets, this means that you are born with the Moon rising. Therefore we add a third axis to the alignment in Mahaprabhu’s chart – the benefic axis of the Sun and Moon at their fullness.

Mahaprabhu is therefore not thought of as a human being, but as an incarnation of Sri Krishna the divine male, absorbed in the attitude of Sri Radha, the divine female. The astrological soundness of this conception of Mahaprabhu is verified by the tight conjunction of these three axis.

The East/West axis (Ascendant/Descendant) governs a person’s physical realityThe Solar/Lunar axis governs a person’s inner being – their emotional and ideological selves.The Rahu / Ketu axis (particularly when Ketu is at the “top”) governs a person’s supra-conscious spiritual essence.That all three of these conditions have aligned in Mahaprabhu’s birth chart verifies the idea that there is complete conjunction or unity between the physical, emotioinal, and spiritual beings of Sri Caitanya. In other words, there is no distinction or duality between his body, mind, and soul. Or, in other words, that all aspects of his being are supra-conscious, a.k.a. divine.

Divine Male & Female Combined

This triplicate axis alignment has an additional trademark – it occurs with it’s “head” in Leo. The Moon (archetype of femininty) sits in Leo (archetype of masculinity) on the ascendant in this huge and momentous alignment. This supports the idea that Mahaprabhu is a dual incarnation of the divine masculine and feminine beings – Krishna and Radharani.

Eclispe

If you align the Solar/Lunar axis with the Rahu/Ketu axis you have an eclipse. Mahaprabhu was born while the rising Moon was being eclipsed by Ketu! The eclipse heralds in momentous change and radical transformations. This is why it is so deadly feared by traditional cultures, such as that of old India. Mahaprabhu was inconceivably radical, and would forever and inalterably change the history of spiritual india and the world, because it is primarily as a result of him and those who followed him that India’s wealth of knowledge exploded into the world consciousness in the late 60s – thus radically transforming both India and the world. The full impact of the radicalness of Sri Caitanya is, in my opinion, still yet to come. In the coming years we will see the dawning of a new age tied to Sri Caitanya.

In any case, eclipses may not be truly bad if you are not afraid of change and transformation – but one thing is sure, they are not easy. Nor was Mahaprabhu’s life one that you would generally categorize as being easy going. He spent very long, long portions of time locked away from the world in desperate tears.

Aspects to the Ascendant

Mahaprabhu’s 1st House receives the aspect of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn – the three outer planets of Vedic astrology. This combination indicates a spiritual leader. Jupiter and Saturn combine to produce leaders. When Mars adds to this aspect as the lord of the 9th house of religion – he increases it. In this case Mars is exalted and is exchanging signs with the great factor of spiritual truth – Saturn. Therefore his influence is very strongly spiritual. Mahaprabhu’s spirituality was the spirituality of divine passion.

Divine Passion

In the 9th house of this chart you find Venus (who occupies her own sign of Taurus in connection with Rahu in Mahaprabhu’s navamsha). Venus is in Mars’ Aries – and that Aries is the 9th house of the chart – the house of religion. When Venus and Mars combine we have eros. The combination in the 9th house indicates another truly radical facet of Sri Caitanya – his ability to reveal the pinnacle of religion as a divine play of erotic bliss between the infinite masculine being, Sri Krishna and the infinite feminine being, Sri Radha.

This Venus is aspected by Jupiter from Sagittarius. Jupiter controls human reproduction, and is also the planet of morality. To be frank with you, my friend, only the greatest and most fortunate of human minds can even start to comprehend the supreme purity of the simultaenous utter eroticness and utter pristineness of the vision of spiritual reality which Mahaprabhu envisioned, illustrated, and was consumed by.

The Insanity of Love

Mahaprabhu has Mercury debilitated in the 8th house, and in the 12th house of his Navamsha. He could not communicate his feelings well. He would become mute and choked up. He could only cry out the names of his beloved Krishna while absorbed in the maddening intensity of Sri Radha’s love for him. When he found a person who understood him, he would feel such relief. Sri Ramananda Roy was one such rare soul. These true friends were few and far between because Mercury is also the 11th house – debilitating the house of friends.

Mercury also rules Virgo, the 2nd house of Mahaprabhu’s chart. This is the house of family, put into debilitation by Mercury’s condition in the 8th house. Mahaprabhu abandoned his family in the madness of his spiritual quest and never returned to their loving support again.

Saturn in the 4th house also supports the lack of attachment to domestic comforts and a preference to search systematically for more realistic truths in the meaning of one’s life.

But his adopted “brother” Sri Nityananda was a true and dear companion – evidenced by the exaltation of Mars – the planet of siblings, and the beneficial house of the 3rd lord Venus, who aspects the 3rd house and thus elevates the house of siblings.

Influence of the Dashas

Here is a rough sketch of the chronological events of his life, referenced to the chronological cycles of his Vedic astrological chart.

Mahaprabhu was born in the dash of Venus, while Rahu was the sub-cycle lord. This highlights the importance of these two planets in his chart. It illustrates that his philosophy of divine love (9th house venus) would be the prime theme of his life, which would be one of radical changes and constant upheaval with tremendous effect on the general public (rahu).

He took sanyass at the age of 24. In other words, he completely gave up his normal life and dedicated himself fully and completely to pursuing his religious and spiritual aims when he was only 24 years old. This was during his Moon cycle, when Venus was the sub-lord. If you are a bit of an astrologer, you will get some chills reading that. Consider how important this 9th house Venus is to Mahaprabhu’s life, by considering the timing of these events.

Having taken sanyass he endured much hardship in the pursuit of solitary renunciation. Thus he entered the dasha cycle of Mars – who sits exalted in the 6th house of hardship and work. As expected he had passion for the rigors of yogic discipline (not yoga in the boring sense of the word that most westerners are familiar with, but yoga in the full sense of pursuing by discipline his goal of unification with his spiritual principles). This is quite befitting of a sanyassi renunciate, and thus Mahaprabhu is famous as being a celibate renunciate of the highest and purest type.

Following this Mahaprabhu entered a period of extreme upheaval as his Rahu period began at the age of 32. (there is some numeric pattern here too, with multiples of 6, if you notice it). At first he became expremely influential on society (Rahu in the 7th house) bringing his understanding of divinity to literally thousands and thousands of people wherever he went. But around the time Mercury and Ketu and Venus had their sub-cycles Mahaprabhu retreated into utter solitude in Puri.

He died, or “disappeared” (fairly literally, in fact), at the age of 48. This was during his Rahu – Moon cycle (again, astrologers should feel some hair standing up as these key planets in the horoscope are clearly highlighted as the key planets in his chronological cycles as well).

Additionally you can notice that after being born in Venus, at the age of 10 his lifestyle and interests shift and from there on out he is influenced one after another by the cycle of a planet which occupies or aspects his first house. Perhaps this can be considered as a significant contributing factor to great personalities.

Philosophical Contribution

Mahaprabhu is though to complete a series of events which began with Gautama Buddha. Buddha stopped abuse of the Vedic scripture by throwing it out entirely and declaring all to be nothing (technically called shunya-vada). After Buddha came Sankaracharya who reinstated the Vedas by says that all was actually something, but that something was one completely unified entity (very much akin to nothing, but a step removed) – technically called advaita-vada. After Sankara came Ramanuja who said that the “something” of divinity indicated by the Veda was indeed a unified entity – but that this unified being was not a formless mass akin to nothing, but was instead a unified entity with personal attributes and the ability to express and experience (technically, this philosophy is called vashistha-advaita-vada). After Ramanuja came Madhva – who took the philosophical development one step further by stating that there were actually two or multiple distinct beings in the enlightened contition – the object of love and the subject of love. This philosophy is technically known as dvaita-vada.

Mahaprabhu completed the chain by integrating all the former teachings into one, and thus restoring the original understanding of the Vedanta which was lost when Buddha had to dismantle it due to corruption. Mahaprabhu’s teaching in this regard is that the ultimate state of spiritual existence there are in fact many separate beings who can be subjects and objects of love and thus exchange bliss with one another – but he added that these subjects and objects have, along with their eternal distinction from one another, an eternal oneness and sameness. It is this sameness which makes the depth of the love (prema) espoused by Mahaprabhu so very profound and fundamental to the spiritual nature of our very being.

Mahaprabhu’s school of thought is technically known as acintya-bhed-abhed-tattva -“inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference.”